Ken Borland

Five days ago, Dewald Brevis was all the rage as the most exciting T20 talent anyone had ever seen, while Temba Bavuma’s continued presence at the top of the order for South Africa at the T20 World Cup had people all up in arms, many of them enraged, judging by social media comments.

This weekend, however, Brevis will open the batting for the Northerns Titans in the CSA T20 Challenge final with his mortality exposed, having looked all at sea against the sheer pace of Free State Knights fast bowler Gerald Coetzee in their semi-final.

Bavuma will open the batting for the Proteas in the early hours of Sunday morning against the Netherlands, some confidence renewed after it all finally clicked against the powerful Pakistan pace attack and he struck a commanding 36 off just 19 balls.

‘All’ the Proteas have to do is beat the Netherlands and they will be in the semi-finals, and all true South African fans will be hoping the skipper builds on the promise of his previous innings.

How quickly things can change in cricket is one of the prime attractions of the game; the vacillating fortunes are why players are always entreated to mine a good run of form for as long as they can.

If someone asks me for my list of the top-10 T20 innings I have seen, then Brevis’s outrageous, record-breaking 162 off 57 balls is on mine.

Coming from someone whose talent has already had people shouting from the rooftops, it was understandable that the innings was greeted with a wave of public opinion that the 19-year-old should be rushed straight into the Proteas team.

But we need to be careful not to extrapolate too much from one innings. When Dave Callaghan blasted 169 not out off just 143 balls, an incredible scoring rate back in 1994, for South Africa against New Zealand at Centurion, he looked a world beater and it was also one of the best innings I have seen.

But as good a cricketer as Callaghan was, the innings proved to be a once-off and his next highest score in 24 other ODI innings was just 45 not out.

On October 31, Brevis knocked two sixes and three fours off Coetzee as he scored 29 runs off 13 balls against the highly-rated 22-year-old. Coetzee eventually had his nemesis caught on the boundary in the final over.

On November 2, this time given the new ball against Brevis, Coetzee, pride hurt, was on fire. He came roaring in and bowled fast and aggressively at a batsman two-and-a-half years his junior. He ruffled him up with short-pitched bowling, struck him on the gloves and this time Brevis could only score five runs from the 10 balls he faced from the St Andrew’s Bloemfontein product on the same pitch.

Brevis surely has the talent to sort all this out, of course, but the cautionary lesson is that he is still just a 19-year-old with just one season of experience playing with men. He spoke with maturity about the journey he has to travel after his 162, and the precocious potential he undoubtedly possesses needs to be carefully managed by the national selectors.

The selectors have certainly taken a lot of flak for persisting with Bavuma at the top of the Proteas batting order, but there were many glimpses of the reasons why against Pakistan: the crisp strokeplay, the ability to hit boundaries in the powerplay with ‘proper’ cricket shots and his brilliant handling of the short ball.

The jury is still out, of course, on Bavuma’s long-term future as an international T20 batsman, but the graph has now taken a little up-turn back in the right direction.

Many people regard Chris Gayle as the greatest T20 batsman ever and Brendon McCullum did so much to popularise the format with his record-breaking feats in the early days, and now Reeza Hendricks has joined that illustrious pair as the only batsmen to score four successive half-centuries in internationals between Test-playing nations.

McCullum did it first against the West Indies, Australia and India (two) in 2008/9, followed by Gayle, who passed fifty in four consecutive innings against New Zealand (twice), Australia and England in 2012.

Hendricks will have the chance to claim the record for himself when South Africa play Ireland in the second T20 in Bristol on Friday night, having added to his 57, 53 and 70 against England with a brisk 74 off 53 balls against Ireland in Bristol on Wednesday evening, earning himself another Man of the Match award.

“I wasn’t aware of the record, but those are big names to rub shoulders with, to be mentioned in the same group as them is really special,” Hendricks said after his innings, which set up a 21-run win.

“A lot of work has gone into the run. I’ve seen how T20 has evolved and it’s a mindset shift as well. That’s the way the coach wants us to play.

“Starting the tour well gave me confidence and you just take that forward with you. There’s no secret to how it happens, I just go about my business and try and follow my process.

“It’s the nature of the game, how it goes sometimes. I’ve got on a good run and momentum is on my side. Hopefully that can continue in the next game against Ireland,” Hendricks said.

Aiden Markram lashed 56 not out off 27 balls in partnership with Hendricks, bringing up three successive half-centuries for the second time in his career (he first did it against Pakistan in Gauteng last year), so he can also join Gayle and McCullum on Friday.

The other South Africans to have scored a hat-trick of T20 fifties are Quinton de Kock, in the West Indies last year, and Hashim Amla, against England (two) and Australia in 2016.

De Kock has, of course, scored many T20 runs for South Africa – his 1887 runs is second only to JP Duminy’s 1934. But he has made just 129 runs in his last 10 innings; he was run out for just seven on Wednesday night, the second time he has suffered that dismissal in recent times.

Just has Hendricks has hit a wave, so De Kock is in a trough and the in-form opener can sympathise.

“The game can quickly turn and then you’re in the dark side,” Hendricks said. “Unfortunately Quinny is on the other side of things, but he just needs one good innings and things will turn.

“We know what quality he has and it’s just a matter of time before it all clicks for him.”

With the rest of the South African batsmen making merry in the UK, Friday night in Bristol would be a good time for De Kock to break his run of low scores.

Coach Jake White is delighted that most people seem to consider the Bulls the favourites for their United Rugby Championship match against the Sharks on Saturday, despite the KwaZulu-Natalians beating them twice this season, and said “my analogy to the players was that they are like a golfer who has a chance to win in the final round”.

The Bulls get to host the South African derby quarterfinal because they finished fourth on the final URC log, one place above the Sharks, and White really wants his players to feel at home in the pressure of a knockout game.

“I’m very proud we’re the favourites,” White said. “We’ve finished ahead of them on the log even though we lost to them twice and they have eight current Springboks and we have zero incumbents. It’s a feather in our cap for all our coaches and players.

“We’re really excited, there’s a buzz around Loftus like the old days. We will stick to what has been working for us and won’t be influenced by other people. My players have been given full carte blanche to express themselves.

“They’re like a runner coming down the last stretch now. I gave them a golf analogy and told them the pressure to make the cut on a Friday is very different to playing in the final round when you have a chance to win.

“I want them to enjoy it and give it a full go, and hopefully we can do our supporters proud. We’ve got a couple of new things we will bring to the Sharks and it will be interesting to see if it works …,” White smiled.

The Bulls lost 29-22 to the Sharks in their last meeting in Pretoria, in February, but much went wrong that day which White is confident won’t happen again.

“We made a couple of mistakes then – we had to play with 14 men, a kick-off bounced straight into Makazole Mapimpi’s hands and Lukhanyo Am scored a long-range intercept try.

“I’m fully confident going into this match and we have played well in knockout games,” White said.

The only thing White seemed to be unhappy about on Friday was an injury list that curls his toes. To the long-term blows that have ruled out Lionel Mapoe, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Goosen, Jacques du Plessis and Jacques van Rooyen can now be added  the snapped hamstring suffered by bruising loose forward Cyle Brink.

Arno Botha is a fine replacement in the starting line-up and exciting youngster Reinhardt Ludwig will be on the bench.

Bulls: Canan Moodie, David Kriel, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements – Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Lizo Gqoboka, Robert Hunt, Janko Swanepoel, Reinhardt Ludwig; Embrose Papier, Morne Steyn, Stedman Gans.

The good people of Gqeberha will no doubt be basing, in part, their decision to buy tickets for the second Test between South Africa and Bangladesh starting at St George’s Park on Friday on whether local hero Simon Harmer will be playing, but veteran groundsman Adrian Carter told The Citizen on Tuesday that he can’t guarantee the pitch will support the use of two spinners.

Harmer, who began his professional career playing for Eastern Province in 2009, dovetailed superbly with Keshav Maharaj in the first Test, taking seven wickets in the match, as well as scoring a vital 38 not out in the first innings as South Africa won by 220 runs at Kingsmead.

“St George’s Park has had the reputation for being low and slow, but this pitch is looking very sporty, although we are still a few days out from the Test,” Carter said.

“We’re aware of what South Africa want, so there won’t be too many surprises, but there is a lot of grass still on the pitch. Local opinion amongst the players is that if it seams it will also spin.

“It turns off the grass though, so it’s not sharp fizz like off the clay in India, but the ends are fairly worn because we’ve had a lot of cricket on the field and there should be some purchase.

“There is rain expected on the weekend though and there’s more assistance for the seamers if the Easterly blows, it lifts the grass up a bit. But it needs to be a gentle wind and it needs to be overcast,” Carter said.

If South Africa do bolster their seam attack then Glenton Stuurman, who has taken 29 wickets in nine matches at his new home ground in Gqeberha, could come in for his second Test. He could replace either Duanne Olivier, whose performance was inadequate at Kingsmead, or Wiaan Mulder, who played only a bit part in the first Test and looked extremely uncertain with the bat.

Long-term, Mulder’s place has to be in serious doubt due to his lack of runs – averaging just 14.40 in 15 innings – and there have also been mutterings that CSA could go back to enforcing a quota of six players of colour, including three Black Africans, in every Proteas starting XI and not just as an average over the season.

Mulder would be the most likely player to make way for a player of colour, but the balance of the Proteas side would also be severely affected if that move comes to fruition.

Even if does not, if Harmer wants to have a long-term playing future in the XI, then he is probably going to have to ensure his batting is good enough to fill the No.7 position. It makes perfect sense, however, for the Proteas management to really want him for the England tour, where some of the venues could have turning pitches and he has enjoyed immense success in county cricket.